Thank goodness I'm not in charge of the turkey...

Happy Thanksgiving all!!!

When I got home from work this evening {which is now really yesterday evening...I guess...???}, I kicked it into Thanksgiving prep mode.

But before I tell you more about that, confession time. This afternoon {or yesterday afternoon, whatever} while I was hanging out waiting for John Wayne to get off work so we could head home, I pretty much wrote this post based on how I thought my evening was going to go. My plan was to just snap and insert the pictures and wah-lah. Well, the evening didn't go quite as smoothly as planned, so let's just say I had a little editing to do.

I started with the two pecan pies that I needed to make. My sweet Mom gave me two pie crusts that she had made and put in the freezer, so all I needed to do was roll them out and put them in the pie plate. That simple little step, turned into a crying, cursing, abusing of the pie crust, match. Unfortunately, it had to involve John Wayne and then my Mom...and in the end, we have one pie, not two. The one I did get done, isn't the most beautiful pie I've ever made and it looks like for our Friday gathering with John Wayne's family, I'll be doing something very uncharacteristic of myself...buying something to take. Fail. So, my {famous in my own mind} pecan pies, that never fail me, well...


So next it was onto the salted caramel cookies, a recipe that I found on Pinterest. Besides somehow destroying my kitchen in the process, these turned out pretty darn good. I actually just ended up modifying my own chocolate chip cookie recipe by adding half the amount of chocolate chips, and replacing those with a cup of Kraft caramel bits and a half cup of crushed pretzels and sprinkling with salt before baking.



Like I said, pretty darn good. They have the whole sweet and salty goodness going on.

The cookies are for our Black Friday Survival Kits. In case you don't remember, I LOVE Black Friday shopping! Black Friday shopping is a fun tradition for the ladies in my family and every year, my Mom and I put together "survival kits" to help us get through the day. This year, our kits include, among other things: pumpkin bread that my Mom made, the salted caramel cookies, a peppermint mocha, these cute "Santa dollar" candy bars that I found at Alco while shopping on lunch break one day, and a holiday scratch ticket...maybe one of us will win some extra cash to help cover the day! The Little Lady even has her own special survival kit filled with some special goodies of her own.





The last item on my list was the pumpkin pie bars that I shared with you awhile back. As I'm lining the pan with foil, I get half the pan covered and run out of foil. Darn it! It was too late to call my Mom and beg some off of her, but first thing tomorrow morning {or I guess more like in just a few hours} I'll visit the local grocery store {aka my Mom's pantry}, grab some foil and get those done. Thankfully, they're really easy.

So, after tonight {last night, whatever}, I'm for sure thankful for one thing...that I'm not the hostess this year!

May your Thanksgiving be filled with food, football, fun and family!
And may your Black Friday be filled with bargains and more bargains and even more Starbucks!